A blog by Andie Gilmour about two Brits & four cats moving to Berlin and living at the heart of Europe. With advice on surviving in Germany, and where to visit and especially photograph. Plus occasional blogs about music, food, and films.

Tuesday, 6 January 2009

Winter Wunderland!

The Winter has really set in now, with night-time temperatures hereabouts dropping to -20 degrees centigrade. The lakes and forests around Basdorf have turned into really quite breathtakingly magical places of silent pristine white snow and metallic blue skies.

Yesterday we took the Heidekrautbahn train up to Wandlitz and wandered around Wandlitzee. There aren't superlatives enough to describe how beautiful it all was. Here's a photo I took looking across the frozen Liepnitzsee lake to Großer Werder island:

(NB click on photos for a larger image)

And here is one of a path through the trees by the shoreline:

This is one just looking up through the trees at the azure sky:

This is a proper, Christmas-card Winter, just as they used to be like!

Today also happens to be my Birthday, and we travelled to Lake Tegel for a scrumptious celebratory Mozart chocolate cake. The lake was frozen from shore to shore, and there were people walking and skating on the ice like it was a scene painted by Brueghel. Here is a woman walking on the lake beside a pleasure boat which usually gives trips around the lake. Today it was frozen in solid:

And if you are worried about how the birds were coping, well, there were plenty of people on hand to help!And finally, here's a photo I took of one of the cannons pointing out across the frozen lake:

By the way, the cannons (there are two) are not there to defend Tegel from any kind of attack, but are actually 18th Century English cannon, which were presented as gifts by Greenwich Council when they twinned with the borough of Reinickendorf. These photos were in fact taken along what is called Greenwich Promenade, which also boasts an English red telephone box and pillar box, also gifts!

Back home then, to warm up and enjoy some red wine and gorgeous company. I wonder if my birthday will be so cold next year?

I'm sitting here looking out of the window at another fresh snowfall, which I imagine would look magical with the sun shining on it and a deep blue azure sky. But alas, the heavens are stahlgrau. Again. I think I'm getting vitamin D deficiency!